Rowing

ROWING WINS DAD VAIL REGATTA FOR THE SECOND TIME IN SCHOOL HISTORY

PHILADELPHIA -- The Sacramento State women's varsity eight posted a 2,000-meter winning time of 7:02.52 to claim the Women's Varsity Heavyweight Eight championship at the Dad Vail Regatta Saturday afternoon on a windy Schuylkill River.

Founded in 1934, the Dad Vail Regatta is the largest collegiate regatta in the United States that includes colleges and Universities from the U.S. and Canada. Over 100 schools and thousands of rowers competed in this week's event.

With the victory, the Hornets, who placed first in their heat yesterday and second in their semifinal earlier this morning, claimed the Evelyn Bergman Trophy for the second time in school history (the Hornets also won the prize in 2004). Today's performance caps one of better seasons in school history for the program's top boat as the varsity eight claimed both the WIRA and Dad Vail championships in the same year for the first time in school history.

With winds howling up to 40 miles per hour on the course, the Hornets' varsity eight had to wait out an hour and a half wind delay before winning their final.

If that wasn't enough success, Sacramento State's second varsity eight, which was making its first appearance at the regatta in school history, took home a silver medal after placing first in both yesterday's heat and this morning's semifinal.

"We're pretty excited about the whole weekend right now," Sacramento State head coach Mike Connors said. "To travel across the country and handle the conditions as well as we did today speaks volumes for this team. Both our boats stayed aggressive and really stepped up in their grand finals."

In the Heavyweight Eight final, the Hornets' mark of 7:05.52 bettered times posted by St. Joseph's (7:05.77), Drexel (7:11.97), Purdue (7:17.41), Grand Valley (7:21.30) and Buffalo (7:31.23). The varsity eight competition began yesterday with 35 boats entered in the event, and the Hornets outlasted every competitor.

"Our varsity eight really came together last weekend before WIRAs, and they were able to ride that momentum into the Dad Vail," Connors said. "They had to row out of lane six after a subpar semifinal, but the boat really showed its resiliency and put it together in the final."

In the JV Heavyweight Eight final, with boats battling ridiculous headwinds, Buffalo's time of 8:01.58 was faster than Sacramento State (8:09.82), St. Joseph's (8:14.39), Drexel (8:30.81), San Diego State (8:34.20) and Delaware (8:36.81). There were a total of 20 entries in the event, and when it was all said and done, Sacramento State was better than 18 of those crews.

Sacramento State was competing in the Dad Vail Regatta for the fifth time in the last eight years. Usually, the team travels just its varsity eight boat to the regatta, but elected to bring the second varsity eight this year as well. The team's varsity eight placed third in the Dad Vail petite final last year, won a silver medal at the event in 2008, claimed its first-ever Everlyn Bergman Trophy in 2004, and placed second in the petite final in 2003.

Today wraps up the season for a Sacramento State squad which saw its varsity eight seemingly get better every week, culminating in last weekend's conference championship and today's Dad Vail title. The Hornets' top boat had entered last week's WIRA Championship as the No. 4 seed before wining the grand final by a three-quarter boat's length.